Daily Loaf

I’ve been working on CL Sarasota’s Food Issue — Summer of Pig — and one of the pieces is a rundown of local roadside barbecue stands. The Bay area is a much bigger nut to crack when it comes to tracking down these impromptu purveyors of pork, so I need your help.

Drop me a comment below to let me know which neighborhood smoke stands you frequent, and give me a hint about where to find them and what they do best. If we can assemble a rough map of Tampa Bay’s barbecue network, we’ll all benefit.

My buddy Decker’s 10:38 Saturday morning call went unanswered. But it did manage to rouse me from a heavy, booze-induced slumber that was so death-like deep that I later learned multiple 3:45 a.m. phone calls and pounding on my bedroom window went unheard. Oh well. I called Decker back and a superb plan was hatched for his fiancée Kristin and him to pick my ass up so we could attend RibFest in St. Petersburg. I didn’t give a damn about the bands on the roster but I do love ribs the way other people are fond of small children and puppies. And Vinoy park, especially this time of year, is always a fine place to pass the time on a Saturday.

We filed out of Decker’s Beemer around noon and drained a beer each during the walk from our Old Northeast ‘hood parking spot to Vinoy Park. Thanks to a brew I downed while in the shower – an experience I highly recommend for maximized relaxation – and a tall boy during the drive, I was feeling slightly buzzed and hungry when we arrived. The PR person who met me at the entrance suggested we try the Australian BBQ Team’s stand. He didn’t steer us wrong. The ribs were fall-off-the-bone fabulous as was the spectacle of a frolicking dolphin couple doing a nautical seduction dance several feet in front of our perch on the seawall that faces The Pier. “You know dolphins are the only creatures other than humans that have sex for pleasure,” Kristin said. She’s a school teacher, so I figured she must be right. I doubt, though, that Kristin has passed that juicy info on to her elementary students. Anyway, her dolphin comment led to a long conversation about how much better dolphins have it than humans.

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